Gallery Models 1/200 Battleship Yamato Kit

The Yamato was the lead ship for her class of battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy shortly before World War II. She and her sister ship Musashi were the heaviest and most powerfully armed warships ever constructed, armed with nine 18.1" (46cm) main guns, which were the largest guns ever mounted on a warship. She was laid down in 1937 and formally commissioned a week after the Pearl Harbor attack. Throughout 1942, she served as the flagship of the combined fleet and in June 1942, Admiral Yamamoto directed the fleet from her bridge during the Battle of Midway. Musashi took over as the flagship in 1943 while Yamato moved around the theater in response to American threats. She was torpedoed in late 1943 and spent time in the Kure yards undergoing repairs and receiving new radar and anti-aircraft guns. The only time Yamato fired her main guns was in October 1944 while engaging enemy forces during the Battle of the Leyte Gulf. Yamato was ultimately sent on a one-way mission to Okinawa in April 1945 which orders to beach herself and fight until destroyed but the task force accompanying Yamato was spotted and was destroyed by American bombers and torpedo bombers with the loss of most of her crew on the 7th April, 1945.

Gallery Models released their first 1/200 scale warship and they didn't hold back on size! This is the Battleship Yamato and the kit is over 50 inches long! The box it comes in is about 56" x 17" x 7". My kit came inside another box that was heavy by itself, so needless to say, this kit is HEAVY. The kit is molded in light gray styrene and presented on 50 parts trees (duplicate trees not shown) plus an array of smaller parts, four trees molded in clear styrene, and 15 frets of photo-etched parts. This is not going to a weekend project, rather it will likely take a year or more of weekends to get this beast finished. The lower hull reveals how sturdy this model will be after assembly - the hull is thick, and there are structural bulkheads pre-built into the one-piece hull (the photos show the hull as front and rear halves). According to the instruction book, there are no real challenges to building this kit other than time and patience.

• 3-46cm gun turrets
• 2-15.5cm gun turrets
• 6-Type 89 12.7cm AA guns with shield
• 6-Type 89 12.7cm AA guns
• 24-Type 96 triple 25mm AA guns with shield
• 28-Type 96 triple 25mm AA guns
• 6-Single Type 96 25mm machines guns
• 2-Type 93 twin 13mm machine guns
• Range finder, Searchlight, Signal Lamp, Crane, Catapult & more
• 15-photo etched sheets for handrails, ladders, and radar parts
• 2-Mitsubishi F1M2
• 2-Aichi E14A1 seaplanes
• 7 types of boats including.
  • 2-17m motor pinnace
  • 1-15m motorboat
  • 1-11m motorboat
  • 6-12m motor launch
  • 1-8m motor launch
  • 4-9m cutter
  • 1-6m dinghy